Layer issues - feature request

In the GFUI, when two object are stacked, it can be very difficult/impossible to select just one of them. This is especially frustrating at the moment; since I currently have to use workarounds for larger images and for certain alignment operations, leaving the first (previously engraved) layer on screen is often necessary, even if I am not trying to run that particular layer again.

It would be great to have a way deal with this. I can think of a few methods that could work:

  • a keystroke to select all of the current layer (like shift-cmd-A)
  • double-/right-clicking a layer thumbnail to select all of that layer
  • a Hide option under/along with the Ignore option for layers
  • a radio button on each layer that selects all of that layer (similar to AI)
  • a lock button on each layer to disallow movement on that layer

(I speak of the layers in the GFUI, not the layers in a design program)

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Thing is, there are no layers in the GFUI. I think that’s the root of your problem. Everything’s flat. You can’t, say, “select the current layer” because it’s all “1 layer.”

Certainly tough when you’re trying to do what you say. My only solution has been to offset my layers (in design app) so I can manipulate them individually in the GFUI and then stack them up as I want them from there.

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Sorry, I think of the “thumbnails of distinct operations as defined by color, oriented vertically along the left side similar to the way that AI displays layers” as layers. What do you call them? Steps? Operations?
That is why I noted that I was not talking about the “layers” in the design software.

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I usually just turn off one of the colors if I’ve got overlap. It happens sometimes, and there isn’t an easy way around it.

It would have to be a specific hot key though to separate them, because one of the initial problems we had was exactly the opposite…it was hard to always select everything included in a shape without a completely enclosed shape surrounding it, and the DXF files were coming in as disconnected segments. It was leaving little pieces all over the place when you tried to grab something that was sitting too close to something else.

Not a bad thought though. It would be a nice enhancement down the road.

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Thanks for the suggestions for the Workspace! I’ll make sure the team gets them.

by “turn off”, do you mean you select “ignore” for that color-step? Or do you delete it?

Hmm. This actually seems like another side of the exact same issue to me. By being able to “select all” of one color step you would never lose any bits, and you wouldn’t have the issues of grabbing extra stuff from a different color (which can happen since we are limited to the square selection box at this point).